Pack politics were discussed, despite Carol and Ryan being from another pack and Elizabeth being there, too.
Jake and Alicia begged off after dinner to return home, claiming they were two tired, old wolves, which Tom knew meant that they were off to bed but not to sleep. Jake took Elizabeth’s camera with him to try to repair.
Carol said to Elizabeth, “I’d stay overnight with you, but we have a problem coming up in the pack that Ryan and I need to deal with. Darien can call Nurse Matthew or Nurse Grey to stay the night if he thinks you need someone to watch over you.”
“No, I’m fine,” Elizabeth said. “I just ache a little. With a good night’s sleep, I should be great by morning.”
Tom said, “I’ll be next door if you need anything.”
Elizabeth smiled at him. “I never knew ski patrollers made house calls.”
Everyone laughed.
“If nobody minds, I’m off to bed. Thanks so much for dinner. It was delicious,” Elizabeth said. “But I feel wiped out.”
Everybody said good night except Tom, who walked up with her. “Can I help you with anything?”
“Like?”
“An ice pack on your back again?”
She smiled, walked into the guest room, and lay down on her stomach on the bed. “Okay.”
Surprised she was agreeable, Tom hurried to get her a fresh ice pack. On the return trip, he raced up the stairs sounding like a pack of wolves and entered the room. “If you think of anything tonight that might clue us in about this, just let me know. You can wake me anytime.” He placed the pack on her back.
“Hmm,” she said sleepily.
He sat down next to the bed, waiting for time to pass before he removed the ice pack. Her breathing soft, her eyes shut tight, Elizabeth fell sound asleep.
Tom was glad she didn’t have any trouble falling asleep because she needed complete rest to feel better.
Darien poked his head in the door. “She out?” he whispered.
“Yeah,” Tom said, realizing twenty minutes had passed while he’d been daydreaming. He removed the ice pack from Elizabeth’s back and headed out of the room to join his brother. As he closed the door, he asked, “What’s up?”
“Peter called to say his brother’s come into town with a mate in tow.”
“Yeah, he told me earlier. I meant to mention it to you, but it slipped my mind. Is his brother in trouble already?”
“No… not yet. But Peter said he doesn’t know what to think of them. He put them in his spare bedroom and told them to go ahead and fix themselves dinner while he conducted an investigation. When he came home, they were battling it out in the guest room.”
“Case of mate abuse?” Tom asked, shocked. “Did he arrest his brother?”
Darien shrugged. “He said they were getting it on hot and heavy, a big-time sparring match. Peter asked if they could stay here.”
Tom couldn’t believe it. Peter was so good-natured, so how could he have a brother like that? “You told him no, right?”
Chapter 12
Elizabeth woke in the middle of the night feeling much better. She wanted to check the footprints in the snow outside her room at the B and B before winds covered them up or the sun melted them away the next day. She was an excellent tracker, her father had said, because of her coyote heritage. She’d found a couple of lost dogs and several lost or runaway human kids because of her keen sense of smell and tracking ability.
She would have inspected the men’s trail earlier if not for all the fuss Tom made about her accident. She’d leave right from the house, but she was so far out in the country that she’d prefer driving back into town and then exploring a bit while wearing her wolf coat.
She hated to wake Tom. But she was certain that if she asked to borrow his truck, he’d either say no to her going, worrying about her condition, or insist he go with her. She didn’t need his help at tracking, which she almost always did alone. She really didn’t want to trouble him at this hour of night, but she didn’t have much choice.
She hadn’t taken two steps out of the guest room when Tom walked out of his bedroom wearing only a pair of black-plaid flannel boxers. “Did you need something?”
She considered his nearly naked body and tried very hard not to stare and sigh. Well, kind of tried not to. He was in excellent shape, rugged and hot. She rarely thought of a wolf in those terms. She didn’t think anything of a man being ripped if he was cruel to her. But Tom was so different. Actually, everyone in his pack was. Kind, welcoming, sincere. If only all families were like that.
“Sorry. Did I wake you?” she asked.